Friday, July 31, 2009

First off, the conclusion of my Washington Trip - day six: My dad went back to work, my brother went off and did his own thing, Chris was already back in UT, so what are three girls left to do? Shop of course! We went to Bellevue Square where I made a deal with my mom that if she'd buy me a skirt I'd clean out her fridge. Let's just say I think I got the short end of the stick. Even though my skirt is super duper cute, that fridge was nasty! No pictures from our shopping adventure, just one picture from the plane ride home. It's the moon over a sunset and it kind of reminds me a of Mark Rothko painting. Today was a nice way to ease back into work. Screen printing day! It's an annual treat that we all get to design t-shirts and print them at Ben's house. He's got his own garage-turned-screen-printing-business.I designed a tree t-shirt with "create" on the side and next I'm going to cut felt leaves and stitch them onto the branches. Pictures to come if I ever find the time to do it. I'm kind of a mess right now timewise what with the move, reunions, graduations, weddings, photoshoots for work, so on and so forth. I'm getting another zit on my forehead just thinking about it - I swear I haven't had acne this bad since high school! Anyways. Where was I? Oh yeah. Screen printing. Here's Ben helping me center the platen just where it needs to be. You've got to make sure there's just the right amount of space between the screen and the shirt.Pick a brown, any brown. I chose the middle one, it's got a pretty red tint to it. I like red. Paint has been applied, now alls that's left to do is pull. I pushed and pulled with all my might!Perfection!Here's a little sneaky sneak of Lindsey's shirt. I'm sure she'll blog about her own adventure once I give her her pictures.Now I've got seven brand spanking new one-of-a-kind t-shirts to flaunt around. Jealous much? :)

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Today 'twas fun. We took the morning easy and then headed out around lunch to the North Bend outlets to get some new clothes for Eric.Last year my friend Marlene loaned me the Twin Peaks series on DVD which I devoured. Such an awesome show! I insisted we eat lunch at Twede's Cafe, home of the Twin Peaks Cherry Pie.The menu was massive! Two pages of burgers! I decided to get a Teriyaki burger. It was delicious and the fries were amazing. I ate every last bite.I wish I could go back often and make my way down the list of burgers. Eric liked his BBQ sandwich, Malm and Dald enjoyed their meal, Allie's chicken fingers not so much (she gave up being a vegetarian yesterday :). Overall I was impressed and satisfied.Back towards the bathroom they've got some major Twin Peaks paraphernalia going on. As they should. These are some trading cards displayed on the wall. And a lot more stuff on other walls. The place burned down in 2000, so I'm not sure how much of the restaurant is the same as in the TV show, but it was still fun to be there and take it all in. Then we drove up to the outskirts of Mt. Rainier to go on a li'l hike. Here's Eric showing off his extra large "Shaq Shoes." He's such a goofball.I didn't bring any hiking shoes, nor do I own a pair of hiking shoes at home, therefore I got a super cheap pair of men's hiking shoes for only $19.99 at the Nike outlet store. They're plaid. All the way. So we made our way up the trail and caught breathtaking views of Mt. Rainier and surroundings along the way.Cool mountains, no?Purdy wildflowers.Most of the way up Dald, Eric and Allie were miles ahead of us. Guess me and Malm are slow pokes.Why are glaciers blue? Or is it just the water they're floating in? I dunno, but I like it!Eventually we caught up with the rest of the fam and my dad told a VERY detailed version of the recently released movie Taken. It made the rest of the hike go by really fast. Final destination - that lookout shack.Some people are nubes. Like the ones who broke into the lookout shack. Moving on...Hi honey, I miss you, wish you were here, see you tomorrow!The original Taylor kiddos: me, Eric and Allie.

Best corner office in the world!This could be our Christmas 2009 card, buuuuut, Chris isn't in it :( We'll try again in a few weeks when we're all together again for Chris' graduation/Dald's 50th birthday/Sara Jayne's wedding/Eric's return to BYU.

Paige the picture queen!It was so pretty up there; mountains as far as the eye could see.This is the biggest glacier in the contiguous United States - Emmons Glacier. I could be wrong, if I am I apologize and my dad will correct me when he reads this.Here we the kids are heading back down the mountain.A cute little critter. I want one.The only sign of civilization for miles and miles.Back at home, Tip Toe was flat as a pancake trying to escape the heat. I'm not over how hot it is here. It's 11:30pm and 86 degrees. Bah.Tomorrow's my last day of vacation. I'm pretty sure I'll need a vacation from my vacation when I get home, k boss? :)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

I didn't get to sleep until well after midnight last night, but my body is wired to wake up at 6:30. So is Eric's. The whole clan was up and at 'em by 7am. I AM sleeping in tomorrow. I am I am I am.After getting Eric a new license at the DMV, we had a few hours before our next scheduled event so we decided to go sea-dooing, yippee! I don't know why, but Chris decided to take a balloon all the way to the docks only to let me let it go. Buh bye green balloon!Eric must have been telling an enthralling story because he had the attention of everyone on deck. Eric brought along one of his best girl friends, Tanya, aka, Butters. She's so pretty and equally as nice; just one of those people you want to be friends with.2 much fun!I feel a little pale next to my sister. I did soak up some sun rays today though so we're a few shades closer together.I know I could rotate this image faster than you can say "Bob's your uncle," but this is the way my dad took the picture and this is the way it shall remain. I think it's kind of cool. What if we really did sea-doo upside down?!I forgot to mention that Eric's suitcases never came around the baggage claim last night. The thing he'd miss the most if they were gone forever? His kilo of cheese. Funny boy. He'd also miss his scriptures. I felt so sorry for him. But the bags were found, delivered and waiting for him when we got back from sea-dooing. Everything made it. Except for his cheese.He brought back two extra large hammocks.Oh my goodness. We're all melting away here in the Pacific Northwest and I've got proof:106 degrees? 106 degrees!? I'm baffled. Mystified. Stumped. It NEVER gets this hot here. No offense fam and fellow Washingtonians, but I'll be glad to get back to my tiny air conditioned apartment in Provo!

We went to our favorite hole-in-the-wall-but-best-Thai-food-ever restaurant for dinner: Mae Phim. There are two locations in Seattle. The better one is on Columbia Street. My dad always catches the workers off guard by speaking to them in Thai. That's where he went on his mission a million years ago: Thailand. He still remembers a lot of the language!I don't really like Thai food per say, I just like curry. 3/4 of us got the Mae Phim Special and the other 1/4 got Panang curry. Yummy in our tummies.A cool lookin' vine covered building in Seattle.Chris got stung by a bee and his foot swelled up really bad so he had to wear this custom made shoe for the rest of the evening. False.

It was just a random prop in a snowboarding shop. So silly.Then we dropped my better half off at the airport. He has class tomorrow. I'm so lonely! You never really know how much you depend on your spouse until they're not with you. I'll be back Thursday night though so it's not the end of the world.

I want to be cool like my sister so she painstakingly strung a few tubular beads onto a strand of my hair.Ta da!I like this eternal garden of red flowers on the back porch. My dad keeps taking pieces off the bigger plants and re-potting them and then they flourish. Beautiful.Sneakers was trying to escape the heat and came to sit by me - a rare occurrence since he doesn't have an ounce of affection for me. And I fought so hard to get him in the first place! He's got such a cute face though, I forgive him for not loving me. Now, my brother is out seeing Harry Potter with Butters, my sister is out hanging out with a boy and I'm sitting here watching Knowing with my parents and blogging. That's that.

welcome!

I’m from Seattle. Chris is from Denver. We met at BYU and got married in 2007 in Nauvoo, IL. Chris graduated from the USC School of Dentistry in 2013 through an Army scholarship. We just returned from Grafenwöhr, Germany after being stationed there for 4 years and we LOVED traveling all around Europe! Now we're stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington. I’m a stay-at-home-working-mom to our son Fox and daughter Jane. Scrapbooking is my passion and I have my own signature collections with Pink Paislee called Fancy Free, Take Me Away, Oh My Heart, and Turn the Page. I’m a blogger for Stamp & Scrapbook Expo, a teacher at Big Picture Classes and Craftsy, on the design team of Scrapbook & Cards Today and Kerri Bradford Studio, and I have an Etsy shop on the side. I love teaching in-person scrapbooking and bookbinding workshops whenever and wherever I can! Thanks for stopping by!